The Oni's Embrace

The dark parking lot at Al's cafe sits silent, empty after the Haru and Brakus left into the night; the demon mask lays in a pile of ashes on the cold, black gravel.

A strange dark mist begins to encircle the mask; engulfing it in its entirety and slowly lifting it into the air. The mask levitates as the enigmatic shape of a man starts materializing beneath it, the noise emitted from the mist sounded like the terrifying whispers of damned souls, pleading to escape. A mangled figure eeriely emerges from the murky haze and begins to shuffle across the parking lot; the rattle of bones scraping together can be heard with every movement.

The mysterious figure stands beneath a street light with the demon mask gripped tightly in its grasp. We catch a glimpse of it's face in the dim light, it is a man with purple eyes and long blue hair wrapped in a ponytail, a strange red tattoo is etched along the right side of his face and engulfing his entire neck.

He pulls out a flip phone and raises it to his ear calling someone, "What the hell happened Hanzo?!? I have been trying to find you for hours" a mischievous voice on the other end questions him with a demanding tone. "I tracked them outside of the city, but they escaped" Hanzo replies while placing a hand on his chest where he was impaled just earlier, he has a sickening vengeful glare as he recalls the burning sensation from Haru's blade.

"Tsk! Dammit." the other mans sly voice spits in frustration, angered by Hanzo's failure. "I'll continue my pursuit of them-" Hanzo replies but is cut off by the man's stoic voice "No you will return to the base and await further orders. A meeting has been called, it's about the intel, your presence was requested." the man hangs up as soon as he finishes his sentence, leaving Hanzo to groan angrily in silence; he spits on the ground and slides his mask over his face before fading into a dark mist.

[Brakus and Haru]

Brakus is sitting with his head propped against the window in the passenger seat of the car, Haru is staring forward focused only on driving, they're on route to the his shop. The silence is unbearable, Brakus is overwhelmed with the questions he wants to ask Haru, but he shys away from conversation. He was secretly terrified of the old man after witnessing his skills with a sword earlier 'He really would have killed me that night... when he is mad he is seriously terrifying!' Brakus's knees go weak as he rubs his palms on his pants to dry the sweat from them as he reflects on the confrontation from the cafe.

But he can't shake this nervous feeling, if he doesn't ask him something soon he might explode from suspense; but he fears that if he utters the wrong question the old man may dispatch him just like he killed the demonic figure earlier. He finally let's out a sigh, "Umm....I have been wondering...who are you? and what were you hiding in that safe? it must be something important if there are demons after it." he stammers and widdles his fingers as he forces the words from his lips.

Haru raises an eyebrow and glances towards him curiously, he was surprised by his sudden outburst, "So you've finally gathered up the guts to spit it out huh?I knew you were just dying to get something off your chest" Haru chuckles and he gives him a genuine smile, "Everything else that I've told you up until this point was the truth, just not the whole truth...it's a bit more complicated" He tells him. The way he closed his eyes as he said this was full of sorrow, Brakus knew he was telling the truth, as this was the expression of a man who has seen many horrors in his lifetime.

"The reason I left the war was because of a mission I was assigned...I was meant to go into hiding in a neutral territory, but I was also tasked with training a special unit by a close friend of mine." he stops and glances at Brakus, who is still focused intently on his words; he rolls the driver window down and lights a cigarette , causing Brakus to cover his nose, coughing as he scrambled to roll down his own window.

Haru continues to smoke as he proceeds with his story, "This special unit was meant to hunt down the Shade Group , so they were....enhanced. My friend and a small group of scientists created a drug that could give people strange abilities... and he believed that with the drug he created we would be able to destroy the Shade Group and end the war, but it was never going to be that easy...."

"We're almost there, so I'll make the rest quick, I trained a group of heroes with this objective in mind and after a few months they were sent on their first mission. Daniel was a part of that team, and the power he received was teleportation as you have seen. They were supposed to collective sensitive war intel, but when they arrived three of the 7 members of the team double crossed them and Daniel managed to escape and the remaining members went missing...but we're all out of time, we're here." He motions for Brakus to look outside of the car, they are stuck at a traffic light one block away from the familiar shop.

The car slowly rolls to a stop and Haru postpones his story until later as they arrive at the shop, Brakus frowns at this because he was really invested in the story, and it was giving him a sense of clarity after a week of horror. "So you were basically the leader of a super hero team? that's awesome gramps!.. but it's super weird that people as amazing as them would be so unknown" Brakus murmurs quickly with a childish glow in his eyes.

He is barely able to hold still from the excitement of hearing that there is a real superhero team it was a dream come true; it was just like the comicbooks he used to read when he was 12 years old. "There's one more thing I wanted to tell you before we rest for the night." Haru calls out to Brakus. "What is is old man?" Brakus questions him.

"Since you are in the crosshairs of the Shade Group you'll need to be trained, starting tomorrow and then you can go back home for the day. But i'll need your help with remodeling this place in the coming days, and it will be a paid gig" Haru says, Brakus stands there in shock 'training?!?!?' he thinks; but the old man must have noticed that he wasn't reacting because he snaps in front of his face and says "That is all" before opening the door and holding it open for Brakus, as soon as he enters the store Haru closes the door, locking it behind them.

There are dark forces gathering elsewhere in the country of Hartford, Brakus and crew are unaware of the Increased hostilities along the borders caused by the Shade group.

[Shade Group meeting: Unknown location]

There is a dark chapel style building with a clock tower building beside it in a desolate forest, there is rain pouring and explosions of thunder and lightning overhead; this is the Shade group's main base, it is located somewhere beyond the borders of the city.

There is a muddy dirt path leading towards the torch lit front entrance to the building, this is where Hanzo is supposed to attend an important meeting by the request of his superiors. The doors to the chapel were made of steel and towered over 10 feet , dwarfing the guards who stood watch outside , two stained glass windows were on the opposite sides of the gigantic doorway.

Hanzo is treking up the path, slowly approaching the door. Behind him there are around 10 men wearing similar suits and they're all sporting different demon masks with various colors and markings etched into them. They have all been called to this meeting to discuss something of great importance but none of them were informed of what was so serious that so many high ranking officers were required to gather in one location.

'The last time we had a meeting with this many of us was when the grand master chose to declare war, and that was years ago now.. I wonder what he wants' Hanzo thinks before taking a look around at all of the officers who arrived alongside him, 'This is every single officer we have stationed in this country... somethings major must have happened' he continues to ponder until he reaches the large gates and the two guards.

One of the guards begins to walk over to meet Hanzo and the others, to confirm their identities. "Keycard please" the guards asks once he reaches Hanzo; he pulls out a strange keyboard with a barcode on it and holds it out, the guards scans the code and waves him past. The guard continues this process for each and every officer in the line until they have all been allowed past and once the last person is inside the giant steel door slams shut behind them.

Once inside another guard points them towards a door inside "The meeting will begin soon, please wait at the table and the boss will start in the next five minutes, do not leave this room until the meeting has been completed" the guard explains to the group with a stern voice. He opens the door, which leads into a huge meeting room with a 40 foot long wooden table with chairs running along each side in the center and behind it mounted on the wall is a large screen.

All of the officers begin to scatter to their seats to await the start of the meeting, there is an anxious energy in the air as the officers talk among eachother, the main topic of their conversations seems to be about the meeting itself, they all seem to be just as confused about why they are there as Hanzo. But they all know that if the boss called for this many officers it must be urgent.

A woman's voice sounds over a PA commanding the attention of the entire room, "The meeting will begin is 30 seconds, the boss is almost prepared."

Suddenly the sounds of static coming from the Tv breaks into the room, the screen blinks and reveals a man with a demonic figure , wearing an all white demon mask that has golden eyes.

"Everyone! I have brought all of you here today for an announcement.... the ways of the world are changing, a new weapon has been revealed, a weapon that Shade group will utilize to end this war once and for all! There will not he peace until we conquer the entirety of this continent, they will either drop their arms or shatter from the force of our armies! I will need all of you focused on gathering information on the country of Ironwell and push our revolution throughout every city! I will be counting on you , my top ranking officers, to carry out this mission without fail!" the Boss dictates his orders with a intimidating tone, his voice was so deep that it caused the room to tremble. "I expect some good news, do not fail me." the Boss says before turning off his camera and dismissing the meeting.

Hanzo rises from his seat with a twisted aura emanating from him 'And now I can get back to tracking those men down, ill kill them and tear them into shreds!' he thinks while shaking with excitement knowing that he will get his revenge soon and that the Shade group's work will soon be finished. He bursts through the door, and strides beyond the large metal gate. Once he reaches the other side his dissipates into a black mist leaving nothing behind as he leaves to continue his pursuit of Haru , Brakus and Daniel.Their brief respite won't last long, Brakus's training may not be enough to fake the Oni's embrace now that Hanzo is angry and has the lust for their blood.